Yesterday was day 1 of tech for Me, Myself & I. On my way there, I caught Matthew Campbell (one of the members of McCarter’s props department) ironing a pillowcase in the wardrobe room. I asked him if this had been an easy show for props, and he nearly threw the iron at me.

Turns out that while there are very few things on the stage throughout this play, the one big prop that does appear is so massive and complicated that the prop shop has been working their patooties off to create it. Matt is usually the “prop shopper,” but he spent this entire show as a metalworker. During yestereday’s dinner break, I saw this incredible prop for the first time, and it was pretty darn impressive.

Wanna know what it is? Well, that’d give away the ending! I guess you’ll just have to come see the show. Interesting tidbit, if you google the phrase: “working their patooties off,” the McCarter Theatre Blog comes up as the second link. I guess it isn’t as popular a phrase as I thought it was…

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Watching the library program from a closed-circuit TV

Fellow intern Heather Biehl and I decided that we wanted to get good seats at last Thursday’s “Live at the Library” to hear Edward Albee and Emily Mann talk about Me, Myself & I. We tried to arrive at least a half hour early. We got there early enough to get front seats…. in front of the closed-circuit TV in the lobby. It was quite a sight to see rows of people sitting outside of the “Community Room” where Albee and Mann would be speaking. People gathered around television screens throughout the library to listen to what both had to say about the upcoming McCarter production. The library staff estimates that 450 people attended the talk, making it one of the best-attended single programs in the library’s history.

Both Albee and Mann, being playwrights, talked about their own personal writing process. I was intrigued to hear about what playwrights visualize and think about when writing a play and the aspects of that play they have to consider (such as character, setting, design elements, stage directions, etc.) to paint a picture of their play. Both Albee and Mann hear the voices of their characters in their minds and must get that person’s voice out and express what he or she has to say. Albee begins writing when the characters in his mind won’t shut up in his mind.

The time that Albee and Mann says it takes to write a play was also something that interested me. According to them, there is no set time amount of writing to create a masterpiece. Both Albee and Mann may write differently and take whatever time they need—Mann may take three years to write a play, while Albee wrote “Zoo Story” in three weeks!

Personally, I think this is a lot to consider as I come from being trained as a journalist at college (just telling it like it is without too much fluff). Playwriting is not an aspect of writing I could ever see myself doing. There seems to be a lot of inspiration and ideas in being a playwright. But Albee stated that he never felt there was anything to motivate his ideas; there is no inspiration for him, he just writes—he’s a playwright.

But there is a reason for writing - to tell a story, to express a different point of view or to show something you learned. I learned about a different point of view on writing.

Posted by Colleen Verbus, Marketing and Special Events Intern at McCarter Theatre.

What’s the latest Me, Myself & I tech rehearsal update? Check out our twitter feed.

Alison Cote is sharing the job of Production Stage Manager for Me, Myself & I with McCarter’s Resident Stage Manager, Cheryl Mintz. Alison is in her twelfth season at McCarter, where her production stage management credits include: Tartuffe (also Yale Rep), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (also Paper Mill), Miss Witherspoon (also Playwrights Horizons), Hamlet, Polk County (also Berkeley Rep), Candida, Fräulein Else, Fiction, Sorrows and Rejoicings (also Second Stage and Mark Taper Forum), The Cherry Orchard, Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues and The Importance of Being Earnest. She recently helped transfer Emily Mann’s Mrs. Packard to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Other credits: Second Stage, Long Wharf, True Love Productions/Bard Summerscape, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, A Spoleto Evening at Lincoln Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Williamstown, Westport Country Playhouse, InterAct and Philadelphia Shakespeare. I asked her 7 questions:

What’s your hometown?
Guilford, Connecticut

What do you like most about being a stage manager?
I guess I like having my foot in the door to so many aspects of the production on a daily basis, whether it is coordinating rehearsal schedules, helping maintain the vision of directors and designers, or watching the actors come to an epiphany breakthrough on a scene. Following the growth of a production from the first rehearsal all the way to the closing night performance—with all its up and downs along the way—is also rather gratifying. It’s a real journey you have taken with the company.

What’s on your iPod (or cd player, etc)?
I rarely have more than one or two albums of any particular artist but rather a wide smattering from Mozart to John Mayer, from Stevie Wonder to Broadway show tunes. I will say though that I also tend to latch on to music from artists with whom I’ve worked. Music by GrooveLily, who composed for McCarter’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and music by composer Bill Sims of Lackawanna Blues will always be on my “A” list.

(more…)

What is twitter? Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that asks the question: “what are you doing now?” A twitterer sends quick updates to the Twitter.com website (using the web, IMs, or text messages), and a feed is generated that allows followers to read about the twitterer’s activities. Since tech and previews for a McCarter production often feel that they go by in a whir, I thought it might be a fun experiment to post about them in Twitter, and you could follow the process, minute-by-minute. I’m almost entirely a silent observer during tech and previews for mainstage shows, so most of my twittering will most likely just be describing what I see.

You can read my tweets (yes, that is what they’re called) at www.twitter.com/mccarter. Visit frequently to see what we are up to, and you can always see the most recent entries in the box at the left hand side of this post. And there is a somewhat interesting CBS News video that explains twitter below (if you’re skeptical). Happy twittering!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

This post was written on January 3nd.

I love this time the most…it’s 9:30pm and here I sit in the Berlind Theater, which I have all to myself. Just Me, Myself and I (pun intended)…not a soul here except for me. Absolute silence. I love a theater at moments like this…the empty set on the stage and the room is just vibrating with a sense of potential.

I’ve just concluded what’s called “Quiet Time,” which is when the sound team (and the designer) has the theater to itself to get it’s work done. No hammers or saws or vacuums to distract us.

It’s a strange name though, Quiet Time. Because the last thing it was tonight in the theater was Quiet.

Bill Kirby the sound engineer here at McCarter and I just spent a few hours setting volume levels for all the sounds I put in the computer. We then took some time to listen to some ideas for awhile: moving sounds around in various speakers. Listening to how the music sounds thru the speakers on stage, how it sounds in just the speakers in the house, how it sounds with both sets of speakers going. You get the idea.

We’re ready for tomorrow, actors on stage at 1:30 to begin rehearsals. It’s not technical rehearsals (not putting on costumes or lighting) per say, but it’s when I like to work as they space thru the show on stage. I like putting the structure of the sound design together so when we start tech, I’m not starting at zero, but have the cues built and ready. So that during the technical rehearsals I get time to move around the room and listen to the show.

The ingredients are in the computer, what it’s all going to make is anybody’s guess including mine.

I’ll start adding sounds in the rehearsals tomorrow, but right now it’s just me, the empty theater and the stage and the last moment of silence I’ll have in here for awhile. It’s a silence filled with potential and it’s a beautiful silence.

Posted by Darron L West, Sound Designer for Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I at McCarter Theatre.

This post was written on January 2nd.

My ears are ringing like CRAZY! Just got done recording and mixing some of the Clank and Clunk ideas. Headphones on and microphone in hand, it feels like I’ve been bashing stuff with various hammers and throwing heavy things to the ground all day. If it was metal and you could smack it and make a noise out of it I smacked it, hit it and threw it down today. Radiators, various lengths of metal pipe, iron stage weights, trash can lids, the duct work in the studio, and the stairwell railing in the hall leading up to the studio (which was the winner today). I collected a good palette at least to start working from.

Can’t seem to start working on the biggest cue sequence of the show till I get this Clunk sound answered. That sequence (which I won’t give too many details to keep from spoiling the surprise) involves the sound of Panthers, a Fanfare and some whips… I’ve got my work cut out for me to be sure. Gotta figure the Clank out first though.

Posted by Darron L West, Sound Designer for Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I at McCarter Theatre.

This post was written on December 31st.

Hello there. Welcome to the first installment of the sound designer’s blog for Me, Myself & I. As I type this I’m rattling home towards New York on the NJ Transit train after watching the first rehearsal hall stumble thru of Me Myself & I. As I speed my way back to a hopefully mellow New Years eve night, I can’t help but be left with two things from the stumble thru I just saw. After so many years of doing this I’m continually amazed by the bravery of a company of actors on the day of the first stumble thru. The moment of putting a play together for the first time is traumatic for all, but especially for the actors. And M,M&I is a big, complex play and there are a lot of words and a lot of complex ideas and staging—coupled with the pressure of guests in the room, as well as the designers sitting with their note pads. But this play depends on its audience, it’s a comedy after all, and how do you fine tune the timing without all the actors in the room (namely the audience)? But for all the calling of lines not known and having to remember the staging, Tyne and Brian and company hit it out of the park today. I don’t think they thought so (judging by the frustration afterwards), but they are an extraordinary group of actors to whom “almost” isn’t good enough, they want PERFECT. Which is an impossible feat at this stage of the process of course, but never the less…..

Of course there is work to be done, but everyone soldiered thru and got to the end and we got to hear and see the play; it’s an infant, yes, but it’ll grow up to be sure.

Speaking of work to be done……back to my first question: Clank or Clunk? It’s the question at hand for me.

Edward has delineated in the script at the end of the scenes: “Clunk: Blackout”

As I look back on my notes from the run there is a sentence circled numerous times: “How do you clunk to button the end of the scene, but not kill a laugh?” How do you clunk (which is a resolution in sound land) and not bring the energy of the play to a halt? But still motivate the blackout?”

Later in the play (of course) one of the brothers pulls on an imaginary bell pull and we hear a “Clang.” Right now, it might be live and said by the actor, but I’ve gotta keep all my options open and of course be prepared in case we do want it to be a sound cue

Why is it the shows with the least amount of sound are sometimes the hardest to do?

I can hear a few ideas in my head after the run and I think pitch is going to be the key to figuring it out, we’ll see. But the race is on and 2007 is almost over. Here’s to 2008 and giving birth to a new Edward Albee play.

Posted by Darron L West, Sound Designer for Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I at McCarter Theatre.

Last June, McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann participated in one of American Theatre Wing’s “Working in the Theatre” seminars. Along with fellow Artistic Directors Susan V. Booth (Alliance Theatre), Oskar Eustis (The Public Theater), and Michael Wilson (Hartford Stage), Emily discussed the role of the Artistic Director and the state of not-for-profit theater in our country. It is a very lively and fascinating discussion. You can watch it streaming on Real Player here, or download it (mp4) to watch later here.

While you’re at it, I also recommend that you watch this video about “The Casting Director,” which features McCarter’s own resident casting director, Laura Stanczyk, as well as Casting Directors Tara Rubin (Tara Rubin Casting), Daniel Swee (Lincoln Center Theater), and Bernie Telsey (Telsey + Company). Watch the streaming version here, or download it here.

If you wanna see something really wild, check out Emily Mann in this American Theatre Wing “Working in the Theatre” seminar from 1994, about New Play Development. She has a nice section about 30 minutes in.

Or, if you’re really ready for it, take a peek at Emily Mann in this seminar from 1986. She’s got a great bit about 16 minutes in, and another at about an hour and 20 minutes.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Last week, the crew loaded in the set, lights and sound for Me, Myself & I. Since we don’t have a neat time-lapse video, I thought the next best thing would be a photo series. I stuck my head in as often as I could (so I missed a few steps) to snap photos of how the Berlind stage was being transformed. You can see the pipes hung with lighting instruments, the work to put in the proscenium, the sound engineer (Bill) working on setting up his controls, the carpenters laying down the floor and the beginning of the side walls. In the last photo, I think you get a real sense of the scale of the set, which is the biggest set we’ve ever had in the Berlind Theatre.

There are a few complicated things that happen in this set which make its installation particularly challenging, but I can’t tell you about them without giving away some crucial details of the play. So I’ll guess you’ll just have to come and see!!

Share your comments by clicking on the “comments” button below!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.